Waldorf Salad (Fawlty Towers)

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“Waldorf Salad”
Fawlty Towers episode
Image:Majorgowen.gif
Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley)
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 3
Written by John Cleese & Connie Booth
Directed by Bob Spiers
Production no. 8
Original airdate 5 March 1979
Episode chronology
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List of Fawlty Towers episodes

"Waldorf Salad" is the third episode of the second series of BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Mr and Mrs Hamilton check in after a gruelling journey from London. They want to have a proper meal but unfortunately the chef has finished his shift. Basil tries to bribe him to stay, but giving up on doing so, tries to cook the meal himself.

[edit] Cast

With:

  • Norman Bird as Mr. Arrad
  • Bruce Boa as Mr. (Harry) Hamilton
  • Terence Conoley as Mr. Johnston
  • Anthony Dawes as Mr. Libson
  • June Ellis as Mrs. Johnston
  • Dorothy Frere as Miss Hare
  • Claire Nielson as Mrs. Hamilton
  • Beatrice Shaw as Miss Gurke
  • Stella Tanner as Mrs. Arrad

[edit] Plot

In the dining room, several guests are dissatisfied with the quality of the food and the service. One guest complains that her prawns are "off", provoking an argument between Basil and her husband due to the fact that they wish the starter to be deducted from their bill. Meanwhile Sybil continues to talk to one of the guests leaving Basil to tend to the others.

An elegantly attractive English woman, Mrs. Hamilton, arrives at reception to check in. A brash American man follows in from the rain and complains about the journey from London (they had to take a "little back street," the M5), and other aspects of English life. Basil insults him to Mrs. Hamilton, only for her to introduce him as her husband. Mr. Hamilton demands that they be given a proper meal, even though they have arrived after 9 pm and the kitchen is closed. Basil explains but Hamilton gives him £20 to keep the kitchen open.

Basil pockets the money and offers a lesser amount to Terry the chef to stay for half an hour. Terry initially refuses, claiming he has a martial arts lesson, but when Basil offers more, Terry agrees to stay and cook. Basil then learns from Polly that Terry's appointment was actually a date with his girlfriend. In response, he sends Terry away and plans to do the cooking himself.

The Hamiltons come downstairs for their meal and are offered drinks by Basil. They order screwdrivers, a drink with which Basil is unfamiliar. Hamilton then confuses Basil by asking for a Waldorf salad. Basil replies "I think we're just out of Waldorfs" and asks several times for clarification of the ingredients, enraging Mr. Hamilton, who shouts "Celery! Apples! Walnuts! Grapes! In a mayonnaise sauce!"

Basil goes into the kitchen and, unable to find the ingredients for the salad, panics. Sybil says she will handle it, but he remains flustered. Basil tries to persuade Mr Hamilton to try a "Ritz Salad", made up of the ingredients that are in the kitchen. Keeping up the pretence that the chef is still there, he pretends to loudly berate Terry for not knowing the ingredients of a Waldorf salad. Having been told by Mr. Hamilton that he should "bust [Terry's] ass", he shouts, "I'm going to break your bottom!" He apologises profusely to the Hamiltons and presents them with green salads. Meanwhile Sybil has already prepared and served the Waldorf salad.


The Hamiltons are happy with their meal, and seem prepared to ignore the confusion. Basil, however, is unable to leave things alone and pretends the chef is still there and responsible for the mistakes. He emerges from the kitchen with a letter allegedly written by Terry, and reads it to the Hamiltons despite the fact they are uninterested and Mr. Hamilton is becoming increasingly agitated. After smoke is seen emerging from the kitchen, Basil returns to the kitchen and pretends to yell at Terry - 'What are you doing?! What do you mean, you've burnt it?!'. Mr. Hamilton storms into the kitchen and finds Basil yelling at nobody. Even when caught out like this, Basil claims that the chef has just slipped out.

Mr. Hamilton announces that they are leaving and confronts Basil in the foyer. In front of the other guests he tells Basil that his hotel is a disgrace. Other guests join in complaining about the food and the service. Basil responds by telling them all to leave. Sybil challenges him and he decides that instead he will leave, putting Sybil in charge of dealing with the guests and their complaints.

Basil walks outside the hotel to discover it is raining. After a few seconds he rethinks, returns to the hotel and asks for a room. The episode ends with him demanding breakfast in bed and a Waldorf salad with "lashings of hot screwdriver".

[edit] Trivia

  • The situation of the episode was based upon a real-life occurrence when John Cleese and the Monty Python team were staying in the Gleneagles hotel. American-born Terry Gilliam was eating dinner in an un-British manner, and Donald Sinclair commented xenophobically about this.
  • Basil starts to introduce Terry to Mr. Hamilton as "Terry Hugh --", but cuts himself off when he "notices" that Terry is not there. This suggests that Terry's last name might be "Hughes", perhaps in honour of Monty Python associate Terry Hughes.
  • This episode had the working title: "The American"
  • This episode marks the second appearance of Terence Conoley, the only male actor distinguished enough to appear in more than one episode playing a different character.
  • It has been suggested that there is a plot hole in this episode, which occurs when Basil explains to Mr. Hamilton that his grocery delivery driver has broken his arm, resulting in the hotel not having the correct ingredients for the Waldorf Salad. When the salad duly arrives - courtesy of Sybil - Mr. Hamilton laughs and says; "Maybe Robinson's arm got better." Basil, however, hadn't mentioned the delivery man's name to his guest. In actuality, though, this is not a plot hole -- Mr. Hamilton is making a deliberate reference to another obvious fabrication of Basil's. Earlier in the episode, Basil made disparaging comments about author Harold Robbins...but upon finding out that the Hamiltons both liked Robbins' work, he unsuccessfully tried to convince them he was talking about a different author named Harold Robinson. Hamilton's callback to the name Robinson is a way of indicating he knows both of Basil's stories are phony.
  • Towards the end of the episode an error is made by John Cleese when he says, "you ponce in here expecting to be hand waited on hand and foot." Obviously he should have just said, "waited on hand and foot."

[edit] References

  • Fawlty Towers: A Worshipper's Companion, Leo Publishing, ISBN 91-973661-8-8
  • The Complete Fawlty Towers by John Cleese & Connie Booth (1988, Methuen, London) ISBN 0-413-18390-4 (the complete text)
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